Virginia Wade: a Wimbledon champion written out of British history | Sport | The Guardian Pass notes Virginia Wade: a Wimbledon champion written out of British history The Andy Murray headlines have ignored the fact that a Briton won a Wimbledon singles title in 1977. Ah, but she was a woman Virginia Wade with her trophy after winning the Wimbledon women's singles championship in 1977. Photograph: Pa/PA Archive/Press Association Ima Monday 8 July 2013 07.18 EDT First published on Monday 8 July 2013 07.18 EDT Age: 67. Appearance: Airbrushed. Out of history. Who or what is Virginia Wade ? Until last Sunday, the last British tennis player to win Wimbledon. Huh? When? 36 years ago. Back in 1977. Then how come I've never heard of her? Because journalists have forgotten she exists. Ouch. And, on the front page of the Telegraph: "After 77 years, the wait is over. " Oof.

And, on the front page of the Daily Mail: "Andy Murray ends 77 years of waiting for a British champion." Jeez. Even the Daily Mail forgot about her win? Yep. Which is especially unforgivable, since they also published an interview with her, in which she told the paper: "You never forget how it feels to win Wimbledon." Incredible. So where does the 77-year figure come from? That's the figure for the men's championships. The last British man to win before Murray was Fred Perry in 1936. Meaning the real wait was actually just 41 years? No, in reality, British tennis fans were never made to wait at all. Dorothy Round Little won the women's singles – for the second time in her career – one year later, in 1937. So there have been two British winners since? No, actually there have been four. Four British women have won Wimbledon since Fred Perry? Yep. Partially deaf player Angela Mortimer won the championship in 1961, and underdog Ann Haydon-Jones beat legend of the sport Billie Jean King to win again in 1969.

This is a dark day for sports journalism, isn't it? Afraid so. But a good day for feminist writer Chloe Angyal, whose tweet "Murray is indeed the first Brit to win Wimbledon in 77 years unless you think women are people" has been re-tweeted, at time of writing, 9,425 times. That's a lot, right? It is. But it only really counts when men re-tweet it. Do say: "If Murray wins, he's British. If he loses, he's Scottish." Don't say: "If Wade wins, she's forgotten." Wimbledon - Ladies Final 1961 AKA Wimbledon 1961 Ladies Final - British Pathé Unissued / unused material - dates and locations may be unclear / unknown. London CU Couples under umbrellas. (2 shots). LS Placing covers on court. LS British tennis star Christine Truman and Angela Mortimer on Centre Court for Wimbledon Ladies' Final. LS Placing covers on court. Various shots during game between Truman and Mortimer, including serves. MS Scoreboard. High shot, the two women coming onto court to a battery of photographers. MS Full screen, audience follow play of ball.

Various shots, game in progress. CU The two players coming onto court. MS Photographers. MS Truman and Mortimer coming onto court holding bouquets of flowers. Various shots, game in progress. CU Crowd follow action during the match and applaud. (3 shots). LS Finish of game, players walk towards umpire's chair. LS Angela Mortimer receiving winner's plate from Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. LS Christine Truman receives runners up prize from Princess Alice. LS Players run up to net to congratulate each other and walk to stand by umpire's chair. MS Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone comes onto court. MS Mortimer receives her prize. MS Truman receives her prize. CU Princess Alice leaves court. MS Truman in action at net during the game. MS Umpire. MS Truman in action on base line. CU Mortimer with her prize. Note: Unused shots and offcuts from item 61/56. Some scratches throughout.

History - 1960s - The Championships, Wimbledon 2017 - Official Site by IBM READ MORE 1961: Angela Mortimer v Christine Truman In 1961,Wimbledon staged its first all-British singles final since 1914 and it was won by Angela Mortimer, then 29, over Christine Truman in an emotional match ranging over three sets. It was a huge triumph for Mortimer who was challenging at Wimbledon for the 11th time and followed her victories in the French championships in 1953 and the Australian in 1958. Mortimer started as seventh seed, one place behind Truman, who set the tournament alight with her quarter-final win over the top-seeded Australian, Margaret Smith, then on her first world tour, after saving two match points. Mortimer won many admirers as well with her consistency and determination from the baseline. Having taken the first set before a rain delay, Truman picked up the rhythm well on the resumption, using her strong forehand and aggression to come within a point of leading 5-3 in the second set. But a fall as she turned to deal with a lob hurt her considerably.

Mortimer astutely changed her game plan, won the second set and grew in confidence to win the title 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. 1964: Dorothy Cavis-Brown On the opening day of the 1964 Wimbledon Championships Abe Segal of South Africa was drawn to play the American Clark Graebner in the first round. The order of play for the first day allocated the match to Court 3. On that same day the team of umpires and line judges held their annual start of Championships cocktail party. Play began at 2pm on a sunny afternoon and was then held up when one of the line judges, Dorothy Cavis Brown, was thought to be asleep. An attempt to wake her was made by one of the ball-boy team, Robbie Thornton, but he was unsuccessful. So Segal broke off from concentrating on his match, walked over to the official and tapped her on the shoulder, which did the trick. The match resumed,Segal won it 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and as a consequence of events Mrs Cavis Brown was given a few days off from her duties.

Segal went on to reach the quarter-finals unseeded and he was beaten by the American Chuck McKinley 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. 1964: Margaret Court v Maria Bueno By 1964 one of the greatest rivalries of tennis between Margaret Smith of Australia and Maria Bueno of Brazil was at a peak. Bueno was the older of the pair, having been born Sao Paulo in October 1939. Smith was born at Albury, New South Wales, in July 1942. They were destined to have a rivalry, which gripped the tennis world, no more so than at Wimbledon. Court — she married Barry Court in 1967 — and Bueno were playing each other for the 12th time in 1964, a clash between the balletic Bueno and the Australian athlete whose training schedules were renowned. Between 1961 and 1975 Court won everything that mattered. But not the 1964 Wimbledon title. In the final set Court was ahead 3-2 with her serve to come.

But second seeded Bueno was ready for the demands and ran off four games running to take the title for a third and final time by 6-4 7-9 6-3. 1968: The first Open Wimbledon The excitement surrounding the first Open at Wimbledon in 1968 was immense. For the first time some of the great players of the past were to tackle the challenge of Wimbledon once more. Back came Rod Laver after a five-year gap as a professional and with him from that same previously excluded grouping came Pancho Gonzales, who had not played at Wimbledon since 1949, Pancho Segura, Lew Hoad, Andres Gimeno, Butch Buchholz, and, of course, Ken Rosewall, who had been runner-up in the singles final in 1954 and 1956. In an all-Australian final - not exactly a rarity at Wimbledon - Laver would face Tony Roche, with the winner to earn £2,000 in prize money. In a final between two left-handers, Laver won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 and Wimbledon's first open tournament was over.

The Ladies' Championship was a triumph for the American Billie Jean King who won for a third year running. King was seeded to play another former winner, Margaret Court of Australia, in the final but instead played another Australian Judy Tegart who beat Court in the quarter-finals. Elsewhere, John Newcombe and Tony Roche won the Gentlemen's Doubles, Rosemary Casals and Billie Jean King won the Ladies' Doubles and Ken Fletcher and Margaret Court won the Mixed Doubles. 1969: Pancho Gonzalez v Charlie Pasarell For a match overflowing with class and intensity involving exceptional physical fitness and extensive concentration, the opening round clash between Pancho Gonzales and Charlie Pasarell is one of the best examples available. Play was stopped at 8pm on Tuesday with Gonzales trailing two sets to love, the veteran American losing his cool at having been forced to play on in poor light but on the next day, in brilliant sunshine, he became a hero as he turned the match around to win 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.

The 5hrs and 20mins of actual play over 112 games was quickly rated as the greatest ever first-round clash and immediately entered the record books as the longest match played at The Championships. What should also be remembered is that Gonzales, at 41, overcame a 16-year age gap which makes his marathon victory even more incredible. Wimbledon Champions: Women's top 25 - Telegraph Wimbledon Champions: Women's top 25 9:41AM BST 28 Jun 2008 Former champion Bjorn Borg reveals his top 25 women while Mark Hodgkinson and Kaz Mochlinski profile the players. Louise Brough 1948-1950, 1955 No player has ever dominated Wimbledon more completely than did Brough in the three Championships between 1948 and 1950. Not only did she collect three of her four singles titles in that time, but she reached the final of every event, winning eight out of nine.

The only final she lost was the mixed doubles in the middle year, when she played 117 games in three finals that involved five hours 20 minutes' playing time on Centre Court on the final Saturday of the tournament. Her hard volleying was ideally suited to the Wimbledon grass courts, which she again demonstrated in adding a last singles victory in 1955. It was her 13th title in total at the All England Club and she did not drop a set in winning it. With Margaret du Pont, she also collected a remarkable 12 women's doubles successes in the US Championships. Maria Bueno 1959-1960, 1964 The lithe and elegant Brazilian brought sex appeal to the Wimbledon lawns, improving the SW19 libido. All the men in the Centre Court crowd fell in love with Bueno after she won her first Wimbledon title in 1959, after which she was given a prize of a clothes voucher and then flown back in a presidential jet to a ticker-tape parade in Sao Paolo.

In future years she titillated Wimbledon by wearing a white dress with a pink lining, and also won two more titles, in 1960 and 1964. Maureen Connolly 1952-1954 Her first love was horse riding, but Maureen Connolly's mother could not afford the lessons and she turned to tennis. 'Little Mo' snaffled a hat-trick of Wimbledon titles, from 1952-54, and was a popular figure back home in the United States. But that did not stop her from speaking of "the dark destiny" of her tennis career. "I always believed greatness on a tennis court was my destiny, a dark destiny at times, where the court became my secret jungle and I, a lonely, fear-stricken hunter. I was a strange little girl armed with hate, fear and a golden racket," Connolly once said.

Margaret Court 1963, 1965, 1970 'Big Marge' dominated the tour in the 1960s and 1970s, winning her first two Wimbledon titles, as Margaret Smith, in 1963 and 1965. She quit the circuit in 1966 to marry and start a family, but returned to the game as Margaret Court, and in 1970 won all four majors to achieve the grand slam. On the Wimbledon leg of that feat, Court and the American Billie Jean King contested what was one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history, with the Australian eventually closing out a 14-12, 11-9 victory. In addition to her three Wimbledon trophies, Court won a further 21 grand slam singles titles, taking her singles tally to 24, and many consider her to be the greatest female player to have ever stepped on Centre Court. Lindsay Davenport 1999 American Lindsay Davenport may have won Wimbledon as well as the US and Australian Opens , plus an Olympic gold medal, in an illustrious career.

But her greatest achievement is perhaps showing that it is still possible to succeed in modern tennis as a mother. After giving birth to a baby son 12 months ago, she returned to win two of her three tournaments before the end of the year and has continued to notch up further victories in 2008. She made her breakthrough by winning the women's singles at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but she secured full recognition as one of the best players of her generation only when she clinched the Wimbledon title in 1999. In an emotional final Davenport overcame Steffi Graf, who was playing her last major match. To underline her dominance that year, the American added the women's doubles with her compatriot, Corina Morariu, too. Chris Evert 1974, 1976, 1981 Known as the 'Ice Maiden' for having icicles in her veins on court, the American won her first Wimbledon title in 1974. That same year, her fiancé, Jimmy Connors, won the men's crown and the two of them danced together at the Champions' Ball. Their romance became known as the 'Love Match'.

But they broke off the engagement later that year so there was no fairytale ending. However, she did go on to win two more Venus Rosewater Dishes, with triumphs in 1976 and 1981, and also married and then divorced John Lloyd, the British tennis player. Borg on Evert Chris could play on every surface, but she was particularly comfortable on the Wimbledon grass. She knew exactly which shot to play. Everyone called me 'Ice Borg' or the 'Ice Man', but she was the 'Ice Maiden' of the women's game. She was a great champion Althea Gibson 1957-1958 The African-American Althea Gibson is one of the most important figures in Wimbledon's history as she was the first black player, male or female, to win a title on the grass of SW19. Born in North Carolina and raised in Harlem, she had it tough during her tennis education as she was barred from whites-only clubs and competitions. However, Gibson persevered with her tennis and secured her first Wimbledon title in 1957 and then backed it up by winning again the next year.

She lived in poverty for much of her old age before dying in 2003. Venus and Serena Williams know that they owe much to Gibson. Evonne Goolagong 1971, 1980 She was the daughter of a sheep shearer and the family lived in a tin shack in New South Wales. Yet that didn't stop Evonne Goolagong, an Australian of Aboriginal descent, following her dream of playing tennis. Her early career was funded by the Aboriginal community. "The town only had a population of 700, but they used to provide everything for me, including clothes, shoes and rackets," said Goolagong. She won her first Wimbledon title in 1971, beating Margaret Court, and a second in 1980, beating Chris Evert. Steffi Graf 1988-1989, 1991-1993, 1995-1996 Steffi Graf was to win a total of seven Wimbledon singles titles up to 1996, but none would surpass her first.

In 1988 she dethroned Martina Navratilova at the All England Club on the way to collecting all four major championships in a calendar year. And she then added a victory at the Seoul Olympics to produce a unique Golden grand slam. An added bonus that year was her success in the Wimbledon doubles with Gabriela Sabatini, of Argentina, for her only major title in that version of the game. In 1989 the then German supremacy in tennis was underlined with Wimbledon wins for both Graf and Boris Becker. Graf went on to collect a remarkable 22 grand slam singles crowns before marrying Andre Agassi in a rare match-up of Wimbledon champions. Borg on Graf It's difficult to compare one generation to another, but there is no question that Steffi was one of the greats. She worked extremely hard on her tennis, she had that brilliant forehand, and I remember watching a lot of her matches at Wimbledon.

I can't think of one weakness in Steffi's game Blanche Bingley Hillyard 1886, 1889, 1894, 1897, 1899-1900 First as Blanche Bingley and then as Mrs Hillyard, she became the first multiple champion of women's tennis. Her severe looks concealed a friendly and sporting nature, but she was nevertheless a ferocious competitor and claimed six Wimbledon titles from 1886 to 1900. Usually photographed wearing a tie as part of her formal tennis kit, she became well known at the time as an indefatigable player. Martina Hingis 1997 The 'Little Swiss Miss' was just 16??years old when she beat Jana Novotna in the 1997 Wimbledon final and so became the youngest champion of the professional era. Martina Hingis displayed an excellent tennis brain; she played with an exceptionally high IQ, Mensa stuff off the strings. But 10 years on she tested positive for cocaine after a third-round defeat and was banned from the game.

In the space of a decade Hingis had gone from a sweet-16 prodigy to a scandal-hit veteran. Ann Jones 1969 The delight that greeted Ann Jones's triumph in 1969 was not just down to it being a home victory. As well as the Birmingham player's popularity, her success was all the sweeter for being unexpected. She was past her 30th birthday and competing at her 14th??Wimbledon. Having got through to the semi-finals, she put out the top seed, Margaret Court, before beating defending champion, Billie Jean King, in the final. Billie Jean King 1966-1968, 1972-1973, 1975 It was not just her record 20?Wimbledon titles, six of them in the singles between 1966 and 1975, that King will be remembered for. She was the foremost pioneer of women's professional tennis in the 1960s and 1970s, bringing a new athleticism to the female game and campaigning for fair rewards in return.

To which end she played in the infamous 'Battle of the Sexes' in Houston, Texas, in 1973, when, as the reigning Wimbledon champion, she lost in three straight sets to Bobby Riggs, the 1939 men's victor at the All England Club. Having won the doubles on her first visit to SW19 as a teenager in 1961, she was nearly 36 years old at the time of her last success at the Championships in 1979 – partnering Martina Navratilova, who would later equal King's number of Wimbledon crowns. A less-heralded achievement was becoming the first woman to win at Wimbledon wearing glasses. Borg on King All the players in the current generation should thank Billie Jean, as she is the one who has done the most to put women's tennis where it is now. If it wasn't for her, the women might not have equal prize money at Wimbledon these days. She has done some great work off the court, but she was also a great player on the court, let's not forget about that.

She is one of the most important figures in the history of women's tennis, if not the most important Suzanne Lenglen 1919-1923, 1925 She was French and she was fabulous. One of the first racket-twirling divas, Suzanne Lenglen used to sip brandy during the change of ends. And – shock horror – Lenglen showed her ankles to the world, sported a short hairstyle and refused to wear a corset at Wimbledon. Polite society didn't know what had hit it when Lenglen won the Wimbledon title in 1925. The French press nicknamed her 'La Divine' (the divine one) and she did much to get the starch out of the clothes and out of tennis as whole. She won six Wimbledon titles, with an uninterrupted stretch of five crowns from 1919-23, and the last in 1925. Alice Marble 1939 The American Alice Marble was raped by a stranger when she was 15, but she overcame the trauma of that violent attack to become a professional tennis player.

Marble won her Wimbledon title in 1939, just months before the outbreak of the Second World War. She married a pilot and miscarried her husband's child after a car accident during the war and a few days later he was killed in action. She attempted suicide, but then recovered and agreed to work as a spy for American intelligence, going on a difficult mission that involved contacting a former lover, a Swiss banker. Marble was shot in the back by a Nazi agent, but rescued by American intelligence. She died in 1990 at the age of 77. Amelie Mauresmo 2006 Before Wimbledon in 2006 Amelie Mauresmo's talent had never been in doubt, just her mental fortitude. There was a time when the Frenchwoman was known as the choker-in-chief of women's tennis, when it seemed that an hour on the psychologist's couch would have been as useful as an hour on the practice court. However, she overcame the doubt and the doubters to beat Belgium's Justine Henin and win her Wimbledon title. "I don't want people to talk about my nerves any more," she said triumphantly; winning Wimbledon had sealed her career.

Helen Wills Moody 1927-1930, 1932-1933, 1935, 1938 The American Helen Wills Moody was an introverted, shy woman to the point of being socially awkward, and on court she would show little emotion and ignore her opponent and the crowd. However, that shyness was often wrongly and unfairly seen as her being aloof and arrogant and she became known as 'Little Miss Poker Face', 'Queen Helen' and 'The Imperial Helen'. See, even back then, between the World Wars, the public wanted to see their stars emoting. Yet 'Little Miss Poker Face' went on to win eight Wimbledon titles, landing four in a row from 1927-30 and then the rest in 1932, 1933, 1935 and 1938. A serious woman and a serious champion. Angela Mortimer 1961 The Henmania of later years was hardly a match for the patriotic fervour that surrounded Angela Mortimer's sole Wimbledon victory in 1961.

There had been a wait of 24?years since Dorothy Round had provided the last triumph by a player from the host nation, but a new home-produced champion was guaranteed by the first all-British final since 1914, with Mortimer getting through to face Christine Truman. While Truman famously practised on shale courts in a local park, Mortimer was prepared by Arthur Roberts, the coach at the Palace Hotel in Torquay, which was renowned for its two covered courts. It produced a tennis player with a style that was a joy to watch, which proved enough to add a Wimbledon title to Mortimer's earlier successes in the French and Australian grand slam events. Martina Navratilova 1978-1979, 1982-1987, 1990 There can be no disputing Martina Navratilova's supremacy at the All England Club. The joint-record holder with Billie Jean King of a total of 20 Wimbledon titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, she is unmatched in singles with nine victories.

Having won the singles title in 1978 and 1979 and then another six victories in a row up to 1987 – when she defeated Germany's Steffi Graf to equal the American Helen Wills Moody's record of eight singles titles – she finally went past the record in 1990, in what was to be her final Wimbledon singles title, when she was almost 34 ??years old. Her longevity in doubles was even greater, spanning 17 years to 2003, when her victory in the mixed doubles made her, at 46 years 261 days, the oldest Wimbledon champion. It was possible only because she took physical fitness in tennis to new levels. And yet it could have been very different after her defection from Czechoslovakia to the US during the Cold War, as she initially showed such a passion for American junk food that she put on weight alarmingly. Turning that around proved to be the making of her. Borg on Navratilova I really admire Martina for the way she went on playing at the top for so long. Tennis was really in her heart and she kept on setting herself new goals. Her results speak for themselves.

She had a game that was almost perfect for grass-court tennis. She was an aggressive player and liked to come into the net, and that is what you needed to do, to do well on Centre Court. Martina did a lot for women's tennis Jana Novotna 1998 The Czech player, Jana Novotna, was a popular loser, but also a popular winner. In 1993, after she was defeated in the final by Germany's Steffi Graf, Novotna famously sobbed on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent, and was then denied for a second time in 1997 when losing to Martina Hingis, of Switzerland. On this second occasion there were no tears staining the royal jacket, but the duchess was moved to remark to the runner-up: "The third time will be third time lucky." A year later Novotna beat Nathalie Tauziat, of France, and the Venus Rosewater Dish was hers. But there was another quiet word from the Duchess. "I was right," the Duchess told her.

Maria Sharapova 2004 One sunny afternoon in the summer of 2004, the 17-year-old Siberian became an international superstar when beating Serena Williams in the final. With her photogenic looks, this was a victory made in marketing men's heaven and she has gone on to become the world's highest-earning sportswoman. Don't think that Maria Sharapova doesn't have a sense of her own worth. She is a businesswoman as well as an athlete. Borg on Sharapova It doesn't hurt to look good, and Maria looks good, but what she really cares about is winning titles. Every time she goes on the court, she gives absolutely everything. She loves to win and hates to lose. She won Wimbledon at such a young age, at 17, but she has a game that is well suited to grass.

She's a great athlete, her game is well-suited to playing on grass, and you can tell that she enjoys being on Centre Court Virginia Wade 1977 It's the cardigan that most people remember, Virginia Wade having walked on to Centre Court for the 1977 final wearing a natty pink one with a monogrammed 'VW' on the front. She peeled the pink cardy off and then went out and beat Holland's Betty Stove. It was quite a way to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee year, with the monarch in attendance that day in the Royal Box. Afterwards the crowd sang "For she's a jolly fellow", and it wasn't directed at Her Majesty, but at Wade. No British woman has won Wimbledon since and Wade is as frustrated as anyone by that. British winners are as retro as Wade's attire that day. Maud Watson 1884-1885 Maud Watson is inevitably found in tennis books as the first in historical lists. She won Wimbledon on her debut in 1884, owing to it being the inaugural staging of the women's singles at the Championships.

In doing so she was the first player to beat her sister, having to overcome her older sibling, Lillian, in the final. Maud was also the first champion, man or woman, to wear headgear, sporting a neat straw hat, something which was by no means usual on court at the time. The following year she also went on to become the first to defend the title successfully. It was a shame, then, that a trophy was not provided for the women's event until the year after the last of her two victories. Venus and Serena Williams 2000-2001, 2005, 2007 (Venus) 2002-2003 (Serena) Venus Williams may have a kooky off-court air, but she is the finest grass-court player of her generation. Going into the 2008 Championships, Williams had already appeared in six Wimbledon finals. She won her first title in 2000, added a second a year later, picked up a third in 2005 and then won her fourth last summer when she was hitting the ball so violently that she made Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli's wrist sting.

The only two finals that she lost were to her younger sister, Serena, in 2002 and 2003. Serena may go on court with designer handbags and outrageous earrings, but don't for a minute think that the American is anything other than ferociously competitive. Serena has won two Wimbledon titles, in 2002 and 2003, and on both occasions she had to beat her older sister Venus in the final. The sisters, both coached from an early age by their father, Richard, have won the title six??times between them, but those all-Williams finals have rarely lived up to the hype. Borg on the Williams sisters I've always enjoyed watching the Williams sisters play as they strike the ball so powerfully. That has often been the difference for them. And maybe they could have won more titles than they have so far, but they have been unlucky. It must have been tricky for them having to play against each other in the Wimbledon final. They are a very close family and they do everything together, so having to play each other in a grand slam final, I can't even imagine how difficult that would be for them.

If I had a brother and I had to play him in the final of Wimbledon, I have no idea how I would have behaved towards him before the match, what I would have said to him. You can tell that it's a strange situation for Venus and Serena as the tennis they have produced against each other hasn't been as good as when they have played against someone else From the archives: Remembering the British women who conquered London and Paris - The Championships, Wimbledon 2017 - Official Site by IBM From the archives: Remembering the British women who conquered London and Paris Wimbledon.com remembers the two British women to have won Wimbledon and Roland Garros, Angela Mortimer and Ann Jones. READ MORE By Paul Newman Angela Mortimer and Ann Jones, who were part of a golden age for women’s tennis in Britain, hold a special place in the sport’s history. The French Open this week is a reminder that Mortimer and Jones are the only two Britons who triumphed in the ladies’ singles at both Wimbledon and Roland Garros. For Jones in particular it is an especially significant moment as this is the 50th anniversary of the second of her two triumphs in Paris.

She had also won the French title in 1961 and went on to record an unlikely victory at The Championships in 1969, winning the ladies’ singles title at her 14th and last attempt. Mortimer was another whose persistence was eventually rewarded on Centre Court, in her 11th appearance at The Championships in 1961. She had won in Paris for the only time in her career six years earlier. The period between 1955 and 1977 was a fine era for women’s tennis in Britain. Between them, Mortimer, Jones, Virginia Wade, Christine Truman, Sue Barker and Shirley Bloomer won 12 Grand Slam singles titles. Their success has been all the more remarkable for the drought that has followed. No British woman has won a Grand Slam singles title since Wade’s victory at The Championships in 1977. Mortimer, who hailed from Plymouth, did not start playing tennis until she was 15, but her talent was quickly evident. Athletic and fast around the court, she was a great competitor with a solid all-round game, including a powerful forehand.

She was partially deaf, but said that could help her concentration in that she could shut out distractions. Her baseline game was well suited to clay and in 1955 she won the title at Roland Garros, beating the American Dorothy Knode in a marathon final. At Wimbledon that year Mortimer won the ladies’ doubles with Anne Shilcock to record the first British success at The Championships in any competition since Dorothy Round’s triumph in 1937. In singles Mortimer reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1953, 1954 and 1956 before making the final in 1958, when she lost to Althea Gibson. A quarter-finalist again in 1959 and 1960, it seemed that her chance of ultimate glory might have passed her by, but in 1961 she made the final once more. The 1961 final against Christine Truman was the first all-British ladies’ singles final since Dorothea Chambers beat Ethel Larcombe at the old Worple Road site in 1914. It remains the only all-British ladies’ singles final ever played at the current Church Road site.

Truman was the No.6 seed and Mortimer the No.7 seed, but nobody could argue that they did not deserve to be in the final. Truman had beaten both Margaret Court, the No 2 seed, and Renee Schuurman, who had knocked out Jones, the No.3 seed. Mortimer had eliminated Sandra Reynolds, the No.1 seed. There was huge public interest in the final. Mortimer, aged 29 and highly experienced, was essentially a defensive baseliner, while 20-year-old Truman was a more attacking player. The match turned after Truman fell in the second set following a rain break at the end of the first and Mortimer went on to win 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Jones, who was from Birmingham, was another essentially defensive player who brought great intelligence to her game. Like Fred Perry, she had learned much from her early days playing table tennis. She reached three finals at the world table tennis championships in 1957.

Between 1961 and 1969 she played in five finals at Roland Garros, winning the title in 1961 and 1966 with comfortable victories over Yola Ramirez and Nancy Richey. Jones, who played under her maiden name of Haydon until her marriage in 1962, had won the Wimbledon girls’ title, but the thinking at the time was that her baseline game was not made for grass. However, at the age of 30 and in her 14th and last appearance at The Championships, she proved the critics wrong. Jones’ victory in 1969 was arguably the greatest performance ever by a British woman at Wimbledon as she beat the world’s top two players, Court and Billie Jean King, in the last two rounds. Jones, who also won the mixed doubles that year in partnership with Fred Stolle, still played mostly from the baseline, but her willingness to come to the net from time to time stopped Court and King, two of the great serve-and-volley players, from dominating.

In the semi-finals Jones recovered from the disappointment of losing a gruelling first set to Court to triumph 10-12, 6-3, 6-2. In the final against King she again went behind before winning 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. The pattern of both matches underlined Jones’ intelligence as she worked out how to beat her illustrious opponents.

Question: Which British player won the ladies singles title at Wimbledon in 1961?
Answer: Angela Mortimer